Thought processes and conversations started under the tilted cap of Tropicana Field. Someday everyone will know the Rays play in St. Petersburg, Florida, not TAMPA, or the fictitious city of TAMPA BAY.

Do You Love or Lust Baseball?

I think on this Valentines Day, I personally need to check myself before I wreck ourselves and see if I have a love or lust relationship within me concerning the passions towards my Tampa Bay Rays. It is a commonly known fact that most of us “love” the game of baseball, but there is a fine live between love and lust when it comes to our National Pastime. And sometimes the borders and boundaries of those two become almost transparent in the hustle and bustle of Playoff baseball and the everyday consummation of our struggle to keep our secret obsession from moving into the other realms of our lives, without noticing before it is too late to switch back again without any repercussions.

So maybe this posting will be a notice, or slap in the face for me to constantly check the current health rate of my team and my interpersonal relationship within baseball before either of us comes out of it hurt, confused and maybe a little bitter about the game cherished deep within my heart. And maybe the biggest fear I may encounter is to venturing deep within my true intentions towards the game and be totally amazed at the close proximity of these same feelings and the emotions involved in aspects of both love and lust outside of the ballpark.

Can it truly be possible that I could conduce a false sense of security, or longing for the game in its “down times” or during road trips, and suddenly wake up restless and afraid because I may finally reveal to myself that I might unintentionally be in the lathers of lust instead of the glow and warmth left by my personal brand of love for the game.

Could I really be so entranced into my love fest for the sport that I do not notice if I still share those common interests or threads that first brought me together with the sport. Do I still marvel and find solace in the physical practicality of game day actions and movements that flow through the game to orchestrate its magic into a sense of acute harmony of movement without transgressing into my own watered down stylistic interpretation.

Or is there a definite glint of me maybe becoming more oblivious and opaque to the crescendo music produced by the crowds, and I could evolve to view the game as a less simultaneous symphony of choreographed physicality that could quickly be transformed into just flashes of either brilliance or benign flutters of arms and legs. Can I tow this fine line and not come to flushing these emotions or even getting transfixed on the wrong influx of emotion ?

So could I be true in my belief that for a real baseball relationship to be fulfilled, both parties have to still have a sense of the common similarities that bonds each to the other, and that are more than the purely physical enchantments that still make you both yearn and evoke sight, touch and even emotional attachments towards our fascination with the game. But there is still a slim chance that when either of these traits bounds out of control beyond reason, or even submits to its darkest intentions, or the simple transformation of the two reverse polarity emotions can happen without either party acknowledging or comprehending it changing them within without realizing the separate realms of love and lust until it is too late to admonish the character change.

A love shared by a true fanatic of the game with its team should reaffirm their emotional tethers by them not only temporarily transfixing the motions and activities on the field to themselves , but also be celebrated in essence of the joy of victory, or the anguish of a close loss, that the two should still be able to link up as one to promote the ideal symbiotic vision of hope and promise of another day and another chance to see victory in each of their eyes, and defeat as just a short prelude towards that primal Playoff goal. So with this in mind, what questions should we each ask ourselves to truly find out if our relationship with baseball falls into the wrath of lust, or the warmth of love?

Here is a short jotting down of some of the examples of the emotion of love when pertaining to the game of baseball. It will include many facets and phases that you might encounter on any given game day, or even while at home watching the game on television or your computer Do not be afraid to admit to yourself or others that you also share some of these same traits in your relationship with the game They are meant to induce emotion or even though so embrace the section for all it is worth:

You have a great chemistry with the team and its players, but you also know the boundaries and limits that separate fandom and fanatic behavior and respect the borders.

*** You want to spend time with them at events during and at social charity events away from the hustle and bustle of the ballpark. And you enjoy being within the crowds of other fans getting to know these players from a different angle or aspect without regard for personal involvement by you in their affairs.

*** You see a future together as a collective member of your team’s fan base with a bona fide love and admiration for the team, and not based on late surges of Playoff contention, but on a year round fascination and interest in the team.

*** You include them in your plans as you take on your daily life. You pencil in key dates and special events in regard to the team to be sure you have them scheduled and can devote ample time, effort and resources to them that day.

*** They make you a better fan just by being your team. They give you a special focus and attention most people do not understand, but might also enjoy seeking for themselves. You show your pride and your admiration for them on your chest or heads proud and ready to show support and cheer without recourse, even in another team’s stadium.

So we finally we get to the end of this posting. Hopefully on this day that celebrates the heart and the good intentions within all of us to those special in our lives, baseball has a small or maybe even large piece of your heart that no one can ever take away that part of the game from us. I got engaged in 2007, with a possible wedding on the field before a Rays game in 2008, but we decided to delay it a bit because of the Rays Playoff push.

We did that symbiotic sang and dance for three seasons until it was revealed to me that my “love” or even “lust” for the game would always come first in our relationship.

I moved out this past October just after the final Sunday game between the New York Yankees and Rays knowing full well that I had to work on my obsession that included both emotions pulling at me in simultaneous movements, but effecting my life outside the ballpark.

And I have come to the ultimate conclusion that I will always be in a lifelong battle between the throngs of love and lust when it comes to the pulse of the game of baseball ebbing through my veins and my everyday existence, and right now, I am fine with that. Maybe I am drawn deeply in by simply loving the actions and interactions throughout the game between players, fans and even the roars of musical and comical interludes from the scoreboards that seems to set my rhythm for enjoyment of the game.

But then I also lust for the carnage of the unforeseen blowout, or watching the evolution of a pitching gem transpire in front of my eyes on the field. Maybe I can find a happy medium someday, but for now, I will just relish in the facts that both emotions play on me during each contests, with love taking control by the last out and throwing lust again back into the bowels of my psyche ready to resurface and entice me again on another game day.

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6 Comments

Baseball will always be my first love…if simply because of the wins and losses and knowing that there’s another day. The losses don’t seem so bad the more they happen…
Some fans can get weird and insanely stalkerish with the players, and I’m not sure why. Also not sure if I’d personally want to meet any of them…when stuff on the field conflicts with stuff off the field, it’s so weird and I try not to think about it.
And in baseball, you can always come back, if you’re down by six in the ninth you can tie the score and make the game last long into the night and battle. It’s a lot like life sometimes.
There is definitely somewhat of a lust sometimes, when your team is winning especailly. Or if you’re a masochist, when they lose. But in life, there’s a lot of love-or-lust situations as well. Baseball is the sport that can be related most to life, though…if you think about it, life is not like tennis or soccer or whatever. Sorry for the mini-ramble. :)

Xcicix,
That is why blog comments are longer than 140 characters, unlike Twitter.
And you make some great points, especially about meeting players after something might have happened outside the realm of the game.
And you are so true how success breeds levels of lust for a team.
There are two teams in our AL EAst division who get a bad rap because of the verbage and actions of a slim selection of their total fanbase.
And these fans have entered that lust zone where the reality is blurred and the emotions flow without thought or possibilities of counter measures.

Brooklynn,
They are both 4-letter words, but Love for the team is the ultimate goal.
I understand the hardship part all too well, or at least my 401-K does.
I honestly can say both, but then again, I have been alive a little too long and have seen both in their prime…..Love and lust that is.

Emma,
That reminded me of a phrase a woman said to me after the Rays secured their ride to the 2008 World Series.
She said the game was like eating a pound of decadent chocolate cake with chocolate syrup, smothered in dark cocoa shavings and strawberries, or a chocolate overlaod of erotic proporations.
For some reason, I never associated baseball with chocolate……….but I see the desire level in there.
Everyone sees this in a different light, and has a different opinion, and maybe that should be the basis…Is it love? Or just an awesome infactuation?

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